Spiffy:

Iffy:

Hellboy is Mike Mignola's popular red-skinned paranormal investigator. The big, bad, red guy with the huge right fist first gained fame as a comic book hero, but since then has become a feature film star, played by the inimitable Ron Perlman. Mignola's creation is quite compelling, as the stories of this hellish investigator draw inspiration from the horrors of H.P. Lovecraft, the suspense of Edgar Allen Poe, and throws in diabolical Nazi mad scientists (and their incompetent lackeys) for good measure. Konami, Krome Studios, Mignola and Del Toro have teamed up to give Hellboy the proper treatment, and the Xbox 360 version of Hellboy: The Science of Evil was on display at Comic-Con for the public to check out.

Go Straight to Hell, Boys

The Hellboy character brings a lot to the table from a gameplay perspective. His basic melee attacks are formidable, and with his strength he can easily weaponize different environmental objects. Kick over a tombstone, and you can pick it up to hurl as a projectile. Rip apart the bars of a metal fence, and you can use one of the posts as a club. While he typically prefers to exert his close-quarters prowess, he can also fire off shots with an oversized handgun if he doesn't want to get his hands dirty.

His most impressive weapon, however, is the Right Hand of Doom. With this, he can charge up area attacks and absolutely wallop anything silly enough to get into punching range. With it, Hellboy is strong enough to perform great feats of strength, like smashing open mausoleum doors and essentially tearing apart anything in the environment that needs destroying.

One thing that is hard to make sense of is the game's deviation from Mignola's art style. While the character models we saw looked good, including Hellboy himself and the demons he trounced, it's going to be interesting to see if fans will embrace the game's aesthetics. A cel-shaded, more comic-book-like appearance could have suited the game as well, but perhaps this more realistic route allowed the developers to better embrace the advantages high-definition.